


Burned Missing Scene

by serendipityxxi



Category: Haven (TV)
Genre: Gen, Missing Scene, Pirates, s03e10
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-06
Updated: 2016-12-06
Packaged: 2018-09-06 20:55:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8769004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/serendipityxxi/pseuds/serendipityxxi
Summary: Nathan takes care of Duke after he falls off the railing at the Gull in Burned (310)





	

**Author's Note:**

> @fiore-della-valle and @nathancrocker prompted me "“Keep looking at me like that we won’t make it to a bed,” and then @fiore-della-valle scoffed that it didn’t have to be dirty so I made it not dirty.

 

“Keep looking at me like that we won’t make it to a bed,” Nathan grunts at Duke who does nothing to change his expression. “Duke, I will leave you right here!” he threatens, exasperated at the blank surprise on Duke’s face.

Something clicks behind Duke’s eyes, he focuses on Nathan in the here and now.

“Like what?” he asks and Nathan hates the way his words are slurred. Hates the panic he’d felt watching Duke plummet from the railing of Parker’s porch.

“Like you expected me to leave you lying on the deck back there,” Nathan says gruff and terse but even then he can hear the worry in his voice.

Nathan glances at him between watching their feet and Duke’s smile is wide and devil-may-care as always but there’s a flicker of…sadness? behind it.

“Thought you hated me, Nate. Wouldn’t be expected to drag someone you hate away from someone wielding a Trouble. Even a little girl,” Duke shakes his head, and from his expression immediately regrets it.

“Yeah well…” Nathan pushes open the door to Duke’s office in the back of the Gull and drops him as carefully as he can on the couch there. There’s a pillow and blanket folded neatly at one end. The couch is black leather and looks soft, Nathan hopes it is. That was a hard fall Duke took out there. He’s going to be in a lot of pain once Ginger’s command wears off.

Nathan carefully touches the back of Duke’s head. Duke yelps.

“What the hell are you doing?”

Nathan brings his fingers around and inspects them. “Checking if you’re bleeding.”

“How would you even know?” Duke demands.

Nathan pointedly holds up his hand that is clean and blood free.

“You could’ve just asked,” Duke whines.

Nathan rolls his eyes but his gaze catches on the blood he can see on Duke’s pant leg.

“Bleeding from somewhere,” Nathan points out.

Duke looks down and opens his mouth, probably to assure Nathan he’s fine, another holdover from Ginger. He closes his mouth a moment later and opens his fist, showing Nathan the slice in his palm. It is so close to his fingers. Nathan knows exactly how many tendons he could have severed, muscle and bone he could have damaged but the hand appears to be working fine.

Nathan huffs out a long suffering sigh and leaves Duke sitting hunched over on the couch. He pulls open the tiny fridge in the corner and retrieves a bottle of water. He presses it to the back of Duke’s head and neck as gently as he can.

Duke hisses but accepts the bottle, even puts up a hand to hold it after a moment.

Nathan hesitates, then turns away. He heads back out to the bar, retrieving ice and a rag. When he gets back to Duke, he finds him in the same position he left him in.

“Hey?” Nathan calls quietly, “still with me?”

“Yeah,” Duke murmurs and he sounds much more like Duke now.  

Nathan swaps the water for the ice and then cracks open the bottle and hands it to Duke.

Duke squints at him as he takes a swig. “Thanks,” he says but he sounds uncertain in a way that grates on Nathan’s nerves.

“Whatever. Got any bandaids around here?” he asks.

Duke points to the door of the little bathroom off the office. Nathan returns with bandaids and antiseptic wipes and kneels beside Duke with his bounty. Wordlessly he takes Duke’s hand and starts to clean away the blood. Duke looks at him like he’s an alien doing a tapdance. Nathan does his best to ignore him.

“Given up sleeping on the Rouge?” Nathan asks with a nod to the pillow when he cannot bear Duke’s eyes on him like that anymore and he needs to do or say something to make it stop.

Duke looks startled then shrugs. “After Audrey was taken I didn’t want to be too far away. Haven’t put the bedding away yet.”

Nathan says nothing to that. Just opens another antiseptic wipe.

“Would’ve offered you a spot on the floor instead of the Bronco but y’know you hated me and all…” Duke doesn’t say that like a statement, he says it like a question and Nathan huffs out a long sigh.

“I wanted to hate you,” Nathan confesses with vehemence. “Still want to hate you,” he says with less conviction.

“What happened?” Duke asks and Nathan gets the impression that he was asking against his better judgement, that if he hadn’t hit his head he might not have asked at all.

Nathan sighs and sits down next to him because Duke could have died today. “I died,” he says simply. “Tends to put things in perspective.”

Duke snorts and Nathan smiles wryly because, yeah, that’s an understatement. They sit in silence for a few long moments, Duke absently running his thumb over the edges of the bandaid on his palm, while Nathan gathers up the gumption to say the words. He owes it to Duke.

“I don’t hate you,” he tells the floor between his feet. “I was wrong.”

He stands then, putting distance between himself and Duke, not willing to look the other man in the face. He hesitates at the door. “Get some rest,” he finally instructs and then slips out, hoping Audrey has managed to talk down Ginger.


End file.
